Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Things That Make Me Laugh

Kendall is on a reserve up north this week.  He does retinal screening- taking pictures of people's retinas with some fancy camera.  He sent the following email to his office back home.  He forwarded a copy to me as well.  Just for giggles.
So, I ‘m up here in Big Trout trying to do retinal screening.  It seems that not many people are wanting to come in.  It’s not that unusual for people to be slow to come in, but seems worse than sometimes.  This morning the nurses were laughing about something and one of them clued me in.  Apparently  there was some confusion as a lot of people were understanding “rectal screening” instead of “retinal screening” when Charlene was calling through the list of people.  Now it makes sense, no wonder nobody wanted to come  J  And it makes me a little suspicious of the few people who did come in  J
Anyhow we had a good laugh and I thought I’d pass it along.
Make sure you enunciate well today J
Kendall
So that provided a smile for me today.
As long as I'm thinking of recent funny things...Lydia.  Just Lydia.  She is cracking us up lately.  The other day she came up behind me and handed me a clean diaper with her "Ew" face.  That means, "I pooped."  Okay fine, I'll change you.   Lydia walks away and I turn around to see her COMPLETELY NAKED WITH POOP SMEARED ON HER BARE BOTTOM!  Found the discarded diaper in the hall.  I cleaned her up, then crawled through the hall with a wipe, looking/feeling for any stray bits of poop in the carpet.  (Gross, I know.  Can't help it- I'm a mom.)  Pretty soon Little Miss Helpful crawls up beside me with her own wipe, scrubbing at the carpet.
Lydia copies so much of what we do.  I can't remember that about the boys.  She has joined in an all-out temper tantrum by an older brother.  She followed him right out of the room, yelling and stomping behind him.  She has joined right in with me when I was yelling at talking sense into the boys.  She laughs (it looks like mocking) when a group of people laugh out loud.  She does push-ups with me.  She imitates how people sit and use their hands to talk.  It's hilarious, but dangerous.
Last week we went to a funeral Pikangikum (a reserve about 2 hours away by winter road).   The mother of a childhood friend of Kendall's had died.  So we went with Lydia and another couple from Red Lake.  The funeral was such a cultural experience.  But even in a different culture like that, I'm pretty sure Lydia's behavior was not funeral-appropriate.  When the music started, she began to clap wholeheartedly.  Then she was sitting on my lap facing everyone behind us.  And she began to glare.  She had her eyes locked in one place (probably on someone?), lowered her head and glowered.  Without ceasing.  Until I would tickle her or tell her to say hi.  Then she would break it, smile and wave.  So I really don't know if someone was teasing her, smiling at her, if she saw someone she didn't like or if maybe she just decided a funeral is a good time to practice her angry look.
So those are some of the funny things lately.  Not everything has been funny.  For one thing, it got cold again.  Currently the wind chill is -33.  We have a wind chill warning for tonight and tomorrow morning- possibilities of -40 to -45.  I guess that's kind of funny.  In an awful sort of laugh-so-I-don't-scream kind of way.  Also Lydia bit her friend this morning.  That wasn't funny.  Also, Eli has a science fair project due on Monday.  That's not funny either.

7 comments:

Dave Gloria said...

Thanks for the funny "Lydia Stories". Those are great! Can't wait to see her again. Mom

Jodi said...

How's come your not funny things made me laugh too? I suppose the way you shared them. It's definitely not because I don't empathize. (sitting here with howling winds and dangerous wind chills and school delays...)
Oh to be in the front row watching these Hochstedler antics.

Jen Bontrager said...

I'll just say a whole-hearted ditto to Jodi's comment.

Kirst said...

loved these stories--esp. about lydia imitating! :)

Twila said...

Slow here, but loved the stories and how Lydia is becoming her own self, and it looks like there will be some more funny,cute stories! love her!

Jodi said...

<.b> JDB

Jodi said...

I will try again. I loved the sex edu. Conversation. I think Evan will take after his dad. Eli will maybe choose another occupation. You guys are soo funny! (JB)